History And Anatomy Of A Silly Drug Ban

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Quality Legislation – Rick Falkvinge

Quality Legislation – Rick Falkvinge

Sometimes, politicians think it’s somehow rational to ban plants. This article is about one such plant, which has mild effects on the human psyche when ingested, and could therefore be regarded as a drug. The drug plant in question, one that looks like any ordinary plant with leaves and flowers, was banned for political and powerplay reasons in Sweden.

The fact that the ban of this drug was railroaded through in a political powerplay didn’t mean that the drug lacked actual antagonists and demonizers, though. The plant was never ascribed to “use”, only “abuse” by these people, and it would even be claimed to devastate the national economy.

In a famous presentation from a major authority, the drug in question is described as being a gateway drug to heavier drug abuse, and its abuse is described in detail, as well as the disasters it brings to national economy. These were the facts on the table at the time – or at least claims, unopposed claims, regarded as facts.

Large parts of the population chose to ignore the ban of this plant and its consumption, and special shops with the drug’s name were set up where people could enjoy it in secret. Many met in the privacy of people’s homes to enjoy the drug, and still do.

In response to this, the Swedish government employed special sniffers that would patrol the streets of the capital and smell for the characteristic scent of the drug in order to catch the “abusers” of the plant in their private homes.

During the last period of the drug ban, and likely in a reaction to the sniffers, guilds were set up to enjoy the drug in the woods, far from housing and urban areas.

It would take long after the first ban before people started realizing how utterlyabsurd the whole idea of banning a plant was, and even so, how absurd it was that people who proclaimed that the plant could be a “gateway drug” were even taken seriously.

The ban against the plant in question, coffee, was enacted on November 4, 1756 in Sweden. The ban was as ridiculous as it sounds, and it was intermittently suspended until finally replaced by regulation and taxation in 1823. Still, many wanted a complete ban to be re-enacted after 1823, again using the “gateway drug” silliness. Trade of the popular drug, coffee, has been unregulated since 1951.

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About The Author: Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.

If the world was deprived of its morning coffee, combined with radically increased work and stress levels since the mid-1700s? Do a Google Image search for “zombie apocalypse”, I imagine that would come close enough. :)

Yeah, I guess that’s the natural reaction to the question. But I who never drinks coffee has no problems what so ever to handle my mornings (even if I hate them just like anyone else). People trying to (or forced) out of an addiction would behave like you described but that would pass. I honestly don’t think that the addiction is inheritable and would accumulate over the centuries ;)

I’m gonna print this article and shove it in the faces of many people. If only I could walk into those responsible for example for the ‘U.S war on drugs’..
Amazing article, I never realized they were handling coffee that way back then! The more you know, thank you for this!

Striking similarities with a certain other plant that also has been banned in this northern country (and more or less the entire world). I hope the outcome will eventually be about the same as that of coffee in Sweden!
However this will probably not happen unless hemplovers make it happen!

Indeed, some people never learn. King Henry VIII of England banned hops, while his policy toward cannabis (which is in the same family) fined any English farmer who didn’t grow enough. (Booth 2004)

Here in the U.S., some states in the southwest banned tobacco, and some commentators in the early twentieth century regarded it as a gateway drug, too. (Abel 1980) Still, no plant ban can compare in absurdity to the modern U.S. prohibition of marijuana, which not only has never killed anyone but even has the potential to save lives, as in cases of ischemia or severe asthma attack. (Grotenhermen et al, 2002)

All facts cited are from my forthcoming history of U.S. marijuana policy, Weed the People: From Founding Fiber to Forbidden Fruit – due out next month! In the meantime, you can access a free download of the first two chapters at http://www.weed-the-people.net

Long after Henry VIII banned hops, the British government in about 1914 required hops be used in brewing beer to give it a bitter taste that would discourage people from drinking beerand getting drunk. This, the powers that be reasoned, would increase productivity in the armaments factories.

English ‘bitter’ beer is now a national institution, quite distinct from lager, and much consumed all over the UK. To judge from the many Saturday night fights and brawls in British towns, the government’s plan to discourage beer drinking had ‘unexpected consequences’ ;-)

This is one of my favorit subjects. I have watched just about all of the documentarys and read a lot of the scientific reports of the plant in question It has amzing medical and preventive properties. The prohibition of it is absloutely ridicoulus. I am so glad to see people having the balls to put the ban under question. people are SOO indotrinated by false knwoledge that it will be a hard battle to win, I am however very glad that it is beginning. Gatewaydrug, yeah right…..If you smoke cannabis you get addicted to heroine. So darn unscientific it makes me wanna puke. Thanks Rick. Love all your work and fighting spirit :) :)

Rick, this is the first time I read one of your articles, and seriously, this shit is incredible.
I feel the urge to print this article and post it around the city I live in, as it is both quite informative and kind of amusing and comical. As in my case, I was caught off-guard by the last paragraph, then burst out laughing. I am eager to read more of your work. Keep this up please ;)

The king ordered the experiment to be conducted using two identical twins. Both of the twins had been tried for the crimes they had “committed” and condemned to death. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on the condition that one of the twins drank three pots of coffee, and the other drank the same amount of tea, every day for the rest of their lives.
Two physicians were appointed to supervise the experiment and report its finding to the king. Unfortunately, both doctors died, presumably of natural causes, before the experiment was completed. Gustav III, who was assassinated in 1792, also died before seeing the final results. Of the twins, the tea drinker was the first to die, at age 83; the date of death of the surviving coffee drinker is unknown.

The idea that the government can stop adults from self-administering a drug by law is so absurd. This analogy is completely natural to me, there is absolutely no difference in how ridiculous somebody should think banning coffee is compared to banning marijuana.

I’ve had arguments with people about the concept of a gateway drug (surely all heroin users encounter marijuana before heroin). And also people on prescription drugs trying to say that they are different from somebody who achieves the same thing in an illegal way.
Especially when it’s illegal because of politics, they just lack the gift of thought.

At the same time, I don’t see much difference in somebody having coffee to wake themselves up in the morning to a line of speed.
I’ve been through Sydney CBD in the morning with everybody holding their coffee out in front of them walking fast as if they are being magnetically pulled towards the coffee it is rather creepy that these people need drugs to get going in the morning.

But that’s their business and choice. The perfect society has no laws, not more laws.

Legalise drugs (they’re going to be taken anyway) and tax them to the degree that those drugs create costs. Everybody wins and we remove such ridiculous stigma and politics from what is just natural human behaviour.

About The Author

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.